Fascinating!

欧仁

2018-05-09
看过

First, I must to say how glad I was when found that this book has a Chinese version. I am an avid reader of Etgar Keret, in both Hebrew and English languages. "Suddenly a knock on the door" is the fifth short-stories collection of Etgar Keret. I finally received a copy from an Israeli friend who send me a hard copy of the book in Hebrew. After reading the Hebrew version, I immediately ordered the Chinese version.

The first story seems to be the reason for Keret to write the whole collection. Keret is a famous author in Israel and his short stories are very famous. The first time I discovered his short stories was in high-school —— we used to study some of his short stories, which are in some cases a great reflection of Israeli culture and society. When reading Keret's stories, I like to imagine myself in the shoes of one of the characters, usually it is the main character in the story. However, when reading the first story, I couldn't put myself in the position of whomever asked to tell the story (i.e. Keret himself). I found myself standing there with a gun in my hand, threatening Keret to start and share with me a story of his. I guess that this is exactly the emotion Keret tried to communicate with us, the readers. It may be his own unique arrogant way to start his great collection.

The collection is fascinating, funny, sad, clever and sharp —— exactly as I was expecting from Keret, due to former reading of his previous four short-stories collections. When I finish each one of his short stories, I feel a small stab, a sort of emotion floating in my body and a new life insight get to my mind. This is the reason why I like his stories so much. I can read his short stories at every time, in any situation. Since the stories are short and no more than 4 pages, it is very easy to take a break from life and get this addicting feeling.